You call it chaos, we call it family

Bush Bash 2.0

The last weekend in June is usually reserved for what we call “Bush Bash” an adult only, biking/quading, camping trip that we started with our friends 4 years ago. It’s also where Brad and I officially became an item so it’s a weekend near and dear to our hearts. This year it was a totally different camping trip. Everyone else was busy and we realized it was the only weekend we would have a chance to take our kids camping, so we ditched “Bush Bash” for the year and started planning a family camping trip.

The week prior was a hectic one. Me and Brad spent the days getting the camper cleaned out, bikes ready to go, and kids and ourselves packed and we borrowed a quad and flat deck trailer from our friend Kevin. This requires so much organization and running around. I was exhausted before we even got going!

Friday evening came and we were ready to go. Me Briggs and the girls in one vehicle pulling the machines and Brad and Dylan in another vehicle pulling the camper.

Oh did I mention I’ve never pulled a trailer before??

About 2 hours and one McDonald’s stop later we arrived at our destination in the Crowsnest Pass. The kids immediately starting unloading their bikes and riding around the campsite while Brad and I unpacked and got a fire going. It was already pretty late so we didn’t get much fire time but everyone was so exhausted nobody really minded.

Maybe he will learn not to play with fire.

Saturday we were up and ready to do some adventuring.

Our camp spot was pure perfection

We ate a quick breakfast and started to gear up. Reegan started to panic about riding her bike. I offered to stay back with her but she didn’t want me to miss out so she sucked it up and away we went. If I didn’t know she was crying I would’ve thought she was an old pro. The boys rode ahead but the girls had never done this before so they were a little slower. Brad and I followed behind them on a quad.

They were the cutest things I had ever seen!

We had to stop along the way a few times to help Reegan and try to calm her down. In the midst of meltdown she told me she wanted to sell her bike and never ride it again. After a frustrated meltdown of my own, we agreed to continue on and talk about it later. It was soon after this we realized we hadn’t seen the boys in awhile so Brad decide to go ahead on his own to look for them while me and the girls waited by the river. It was fine by us, the scenery was beautiful.

The boys showed up about 10 minutes later but no Brad. We waited a few minutes and then Dylan went looking for him. They both came back shortly but I could tell something was wrong. The throttle cable broke and Brad had been pushing the quad back! Obviously we needed to get back to camp. Brad figured out a way to keep the bike idling and use the momentum of the hills to keep us going as much as possible. We sent the kids ahead so they wouldn’t get in our way because if we stopped it was too hard to get going again. What an interesting ride back that was.

Just as we were pulling into camp, Briggs came speeding across the field heading for a little jump in front of us. He hit it and I’m sure, immediately regretted it. His one leg was flying behind him in the air while he was still holding his handle bars and as he hit the ground, him and his bike both went sliding sideways across the grass. He immediately hopped up and told us he was ok, I laughed so hard I cried (its 2 days later and I’m still laughing).

While I made lunch, Brad managed to jimmy rig the throttle cable to the handle bars so all he had to do was pull the cable instead of push the throttle. We rode it like that for the rest of the weekend haha

The next trail we took was in the opposite direction to a fish pond and Reegan’s fears had vanished. It was a fun little ride and when we got there she told me she definitely didn’t want to sell her bike anymore. We sat here awhile and watched fish after fish jump out of the water.

By this time the boys were sick of being slowed down by us girls so Brad traded the quad in for his bike and they went for a boys ride. Me and the girls headed to the town of Coleman for firewood and to find a waterfall someone had told us about.

The 5 minute easy walk we were told about turned into a 30 minute hike I wished I had worn different shoes for but my oh my the scenery was gorgeous and the girls soon turned it into an opportunity for a photo shoot.

Finally we made it to the waterfall! It wasn’t quite what we had expected but it was pretty none the less and we spent awhile jump from rock to rock across the little river, and of course, taking more pictures.

We had parked in the same parking lot as a spray park so we decided to head back and check it out because the girls were boiling hot and sweating up a storm. We found some other cool stuff in the parking lot too.

Huh, who knew!?

h

Don’t they make a cute couple?

After having their fill of the spray park we headed back to camp to see if the boys were back. Sure enough they were, and the conservation officer was with them. Not a sight you want to pull up to. Turns out he was just checking for bike insurance and registration, we had it so we were fine. This is when Brad and Briggs decided to tell me Briggs had a pretty big crash but to everyones surprise he was totally fine, just needed a nap. So did I. Brad and Dylan took this chance to go with a friend on another ride for about an hour.

When they got back I threw a frozen lasagna in the camper oven to cook while we went in one last family ride for the day.

We spent the rest of the evening around the fire, making smores, quoting the sandlot and playing hide and seek. Well, the kids played, we watched.

Sunday morning Brad and Dylan were still raring to go but the rest of us were sore, tired and not feeling great. We all toughed out one more ride to the pond and then came back to pack up and ship out.

This is my favourite picture of the weekend

It wasn’t the Bush Bash/anniversary weekend we are used to but it was still a blast!

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Welcome To The Richards!

We are a bit of a yours, mine and ours situation just light on the "ours" part haha we do our best to juggle our hectic life and it makes for some pretty hilarious writing material. Hope you enjoy our adventures as much as we do!